74-634: Elric of Melniboné is a fictional character created by English writer Michael Moorcock and the protagonist of a series of sword and sorcery stories taking place on an alternative Earth. The proper name and title of the character are Elric VIII, 428th Emperor of Melniboné. Later stories by Moorcock marked Elric as a facet of the Eternal Champion . Elric first appeared in print in Moorcock's novella " The Dreaming City " ( Science Fantasy No. 47, June 1961). Moorcock's doomed albino antihero
148-577: A Doctor Who novel for BBC Books in 2010, one of the few occasions when he has written stories set in other people's "shared universes". The novel The Coming of the Terraphiles was released in October 2010. The story merges Doctor Who with many of Moorcock's characters from the multiverse, notably Captain Cornelius and his pirates. In 2016 Moorcock published the first novel in what he terms
222-653: A 1978 essay, "Starship Stormtroopers" ( Anarchist Review ). There he criticised the production of "authoritarian" fiction by certain canonical writers and Lovecraft for having antisemitic , misogynistic , and racist viewpoints woven into his short stories. Moorcock has allowed other writers to create stories in his fictional Jerry Cornelius universe. Brian Aldiss , Hilary Bailey , M. John Harrison , Norman Spinrad , James Sallis , and Steve Aylett have written such stories. In an interview published in The Internet Review of Science Fiction , Moorcock explains
296-640: A book in 1969 by Allison and Busby ). A new, final revision of almost Moorcock's entire oeuvre, with the exception of his literary novels Mother London , King of the City and the Pyat quartet, is issued by Gollancz and many of his titles are reprinted in the United States by Simon and Schuster and Titan and in France by Gallimard. Many novels and comics based on his work are being reprinted by Titan Books under
370-508: A callous nature. They are bound by many ancient customs. Melniboné's capital and only surviving city is Imrryr, known as "The Dreaming City". Most of the rest of the island has been allowed to revert to wilderness. Caverns exist below the island, in which dragons sleep, awaiting the Melnibonéans' summons to war. Moorcock acknowledges the work of Bertolt Brecht , particularly Threepenny Novel and The Threepenny Opera , as "one of
444-506: A critical point of his story (this song may also refer to the "Warriors at the Edge of Time", which figure heavily in Moorcock's novels about John Daker; at one point his novel The Dragon in the Sword they call themselves the "veterans of a thousand psychic wars", although the term is also applied to Elric in 2022's "The Citadel of Forgotten Myths"), and " The Great Sun Jester ", about his friend,
518-532: A day and gave myself three days a volume. That's how, for instance, the Hawkmoon books were written." Over the period of the New Worlds editorship and his publishing of the original fantasy novels Moorcock has maintained an interest in the craft of writing and a continuing interest in the semi-journalistic craft of "pulp" authorship. This is reflected in his development of interlocking cycles which hark back to
592-714: A literary experiment blending memoir and fantasy, The Whispering Swarm . In 2018, he announced his completion of the second volume The Woods of Arcady . In 2020, he said he was completing the final Elric novel The Citadel of Forgotten Myths ready for Elric's 60th anniversary in 2021. Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius novella Pegging the President was launched in 2018 at Shakespeare and Co , Paris, where he discussed his work with Hari Kunzru and reaffirmed his commitment to literary experiment. The first of an audiobook series of unabridged Elric novels, with new work read by Moorcock, began appearing from AudioRealms; however, Audio Realms
666-507: A long illness. Moorcock abandoned a memoir about his friends Mervyn Peake and Maeve Gilmore because he felt it was too personal. He wrote prose and verse for The Sunday Books first publication in French to accompany a set of unpublished Peake drawings. His book The Metatemporal Detective was published in 2007. His most recent book published first in French is Kaboul , in 2018. In November 2009, Moorcock announced that he would be writing
740-690: A new Deep Fix album in Paris, titled Live at the Terminal Cafe . Following Stone's death in 2016, Moorcock completed the album with producer Don Falcone . In 2019, Moorcock announced the completion of the album, and it was released 11 October 2019, on Cleopatra Records . Moorcock collaborated with the British rock band Hawkwind on many occasions: the Hawkwind track " The Black Corridor ", for example, included verbatim quotes from Moorcock's novel of
814-409: A note which often states quite directly that one should serve neither gods nor masters but become one's own master." Besides using fiction to explore his politics, Moorcock also engages in non-violent political activism . In order to "marginalize stuff that works to objectify women and suggests women enjoy being beaten", he has encouraged W H Smiths to move John Norman 's Gor series novels to
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#1732780503951888-639: A pseudonym, particularly in his "Second Ether" fiction. Moorcock talks about much of his writing in Death Is No Obstacle with Colin Greenland, which is a book-length transcription of interviews with Moorcock about the techniques in his writing. Moorcock has also published pastiches of writers for whom he felt affection as a boy, including Edgar Rice Burroughs , Leigh Brackett , and Robert E. Howard . All his fantasy adventures have elements of satire and parody, while respecting what he considers
962-676: A script for a computer game/film/novel by Origin Systems . When Electronic Arts bought Origins, the game was cancelled, but Moorcock's 40,000-word treatment was fleshed out by Storm Constantine , resulting in the novel Silverheart . The story is set in Karadur-Shriltasi, a city at the heart of the Multiverse . A second novel, Dragonskin , was in preparation, with Constantine as the main writer, but she died in January 2021, after
1036-516: A talking magic sword and fatal alienation of the hero from his family. Besides Elric, Kullervo has been proposed as having influence on Poul Anderson's 1954 novel The Broken Sword , and J.R.R. Tolkien 's Túrin Turambar . Moorcock has stated that "Anderson's a definite influence [on Elric], as stated. But oddly, the Kalevala was read to us at my boarding school when I was about seven", and "from
1110-636: A trio with Peter Pavli and Drachen Theaker, some Deep Fix recordings were issued on Hawkwind, Friends and Relations and a limited-edition 7" single of "Brothel in Rosenstrasse" backed with "Time Centre", which featured Langdon Jones on piano. In 2008, The Entropy Tango & Gloriana Demo Sessions by Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix was released. These were sessions for planned albums based on two of Moorcock's novels, Gloriana, or The Unfulfill'd Queen and The Entropy Tango , which were never completed. Pavli, Moorcock and Falcone are currently in
1184-552: A very early age I was reading Norse legends and any books I could find about Norse stories". Moorcock in the same posting stated that "one thing I'm pretty sure of, I was not in any way directly influenced by Prof. T[olkien]". Elric's albinism appears influenced by Monsieur Zenith , an albino Sexton Blake villain whom Moorcock appreciated enough to write into later multiverse stories. Moorcock read Zenith stories in his youth and has contributed to their later reprinting, remarking that it "took me forty years to find another copy of Zenith
1258-640: A way of commenting on it. Jerry, as Harrison said, was as much a technique as a character and I'm glad that others have taken to using that method. Two short stories by Keith Roberts , "Coranda" and "The Wreck of the Kissing Bitch", are set in the frozen Matto Grosso plateau of Moorcock's 1969 novel, The Ice Schooner . Elric of Melnibone and Moonglum appear in Karl Edward Wagner 's story "The Gothic Touch", where they meet with Kane , who borrows Elric for his ability to deal with demons. He
1332-866: Is a friend and fan of comic book writer Alan Moore and allowed Moore the use of his own character, Michael Kane of Old Mars, mentioned in Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II . The two appeared on stage at the Vanbrugh Theatre in London in January 2006 where they discussed Moorcock's work. The Green City from Warriors of Mars was also referenced in Larry Niven 's Rainbow Mars . Jerry Cornelius appeared in Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century . Cornelius also appeared in French artist Mœbius ' comic series Le Garage Hermétique . In 1995–96, Moorcock wrote
1406-423: Is an English writer, particularly of science fiction and fantasy , who has published a number of well-received literary novels as well as comic thrillers, graphic novels and non-fiction. He has worked as an editor and is also a successful musician. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné , which were a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s. As editor of
1480-469: Is an imaginary country, an island among the Young Kingdoms . Centuries before Elric's birth, Melniboné ruled its world through sorcerous might and sheer power. By the time of Elric's birth, it has slipped from its preeminent place, being one of many nations. The Melnibonéans themselves are not wholly human. They are skilled with magic and beautiful, though psychologically similar to cats , with
1554-708: Is no longer in business. The second audiobook in the series – The Sailor on the Seas of Fate – was published in 2007. There have been audio-books of Corum and others, several of which were unofficial and A Winter Admiral and Furniture are audio versions of short stories. Since then The Whispering Swarm and the Corum books became available via Audible and all the Elric books were scheduled to appear in audio form to coincide with Simon and Schuster's new illustrated set in 2022. Moorcock has his own music project, which records under
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#17327805039511628-400: Is one of the better known characters in fantasy literature, having crossed over into a wide variety of media, such as role-playing games , comics, music, and film. The stories have been continuously in print since the 1970s. Elric is described in 1972's Elric of Melniboné : It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white. From
1702-580: Is the concept of an " Eternal Champion ", who has multiple identities across alternate universes. This cosmology is called the " Multiverse " within his novels. The Multiverse deals with fundamental polarities, such as Law versus Chaos , and order versus entropy. Elric's success has overshadowed Moorcock's other works, though he has worked the Elric stories' themes into his other works (the "Hawkmoon" and "Corum" novels, for example). His Eternal Champion sequence has been collected in two different editions of omnibus volumes totaling 16 books (the U.S. edition
1776-652: The Titus Groan trilogy, Poul Anderson's Scafloc in The Broken Sword , T. H. White's Lancelot in The Once and Future King , J. R. R. Tolkien's cursed hero Túrin Turambar , and Jane Gaskell's Zerd in The Serpent . John Clute considers Elric to be a deliberate parody of Robert E. Howard 's Conan . The story of Kullervo from Finnish mythology contains elements similar to Elric's story, such as
1850-552: The Arts Council of Great Britain for funding the magazine. In 2008, The Times named Moorcock in its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". Moorcock is also a recording musician; he has contributed to the music acts Hawkwind , Blue Öyster Cult , Robert Calvert and Spirits Burning , and to his own project, Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix. Michael Moorcock was born in London in December 1939, and
1924-487: The top shelf . Moorcock began writing while he was still at school, contributing to a magazine he entitled Outlaw's Own from 1950 on. In 1957, at the age of 17, Moorcock became editor of Tarzan Adventures (a national juvenile weekly featuring text and Tarzan comic strip), which had published at least a dozen of his own "Sojan the Swordsman" stories during that year and the next. At the age of 18, in 1958, he wrote
1998-556: The 2021 Spirits Burning album Evolution Ritual . Moorcock also appeared on five tracks on the Spirits Burning CD Alien Injection , released in 2008. He is credited with singing lead vocals and playing glockenspiel, guitar and mandolin. The performances used on the CD were from The Entropy Tango & Gloriana Demo Sessions . Poul Anderson Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001)
2072-637: The 60th anniversary of his hero's appearance. He and Simonson produced the graphic novel, Elric: the Making of a Sorcerer , published by DC Comics in 2007. In 2006, he completed his highly praised Colonel Pyat sequence, dealing with the Nazi Holocaust. This began in 1981 with Byzantium Endures , continued through The Laughter of Carthage (1984) and Jerusalem Commands (1992), and culminated with The Vengeance of Rome (2006). His most recent sequence, KABOUL , with illustrations by Miles Hyman,
2146-520: The Albino! In fact it was a friend who found it under lock and key and got a copy of it to Savoy who are, at last, about to reprint it! Why I have spent so much energy making public the evidence of my vast theft from Anthony Skene, I'm not entirely sure... ". Moorcock later said: "As I've said in my introduction to Monsieur Zenith: The Albino , the Anthony Skene's character was a huge influence. For
2220-450: The British " pop art " movement exemplified by Eduardo Paolozzi , Richard Hamilton and others. Paolozzi became "Aviation Editor". During that time, he occasionally wrote as " James Colvin ", a "house pseudonym " originally created for him by John Carnell also used by other New Worlds critics. A spoof obituary of Colvin appeared in New Worlds #197 (January 1970), written by Charles Platt as "William Barclay". Moorcock makes much use of
2294-547: The British 'New Wave' in Science Fiction . He followed this with Michael Moorcock: Death is No Obstacle , a book-length interview about technique, in 1992. Michael Moorcock: Law of Chaos by Jeff Gardiner and Michael Moorcock: Fiction, Fantasy and the World's Pain by Mark Scroggins were published more recently. In the 1990s, Moorcock moved to Texas in the United States. His wife Linda is American. He spends half of
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2368-522: The British science fiction magazine New Worlds , from May 1964 until March 1971 and then again from 1976 to 1996, Moorcock fostered the development of the science fiction "New Wave" in the UK and indirectly in the United States, leading to the advent of cyberpunk . His publication of Bug Jack Barron (1969) by Norman Spinrad as a serial novel was notorious; in Parliament, some British MPs condemned
2442-1077: The City , the Pyat Quartet and the short story collection London Bone have established him in the eyes of critics such as Iain Sinclair , Peter Ackroyd and Allan Massie in publications including The Times Literary Supplement and the London Review of Books as a major contemporary literary novelist. In 2008 Moorcock was named by a critics' panel in The Times as one of the fifty best British novelists since 1945. Virtually all of his stories are part of his overarching " Eternal Champion " theme or oeuvre , with characters (including Elric) moving from one storyline and fictional universe to another, all of them interconnected (though often only in dreams or visions ). Most of Moorcock's earlier work consisted of short stories and relatively brief novels: he has mentioned that "I could write 15,000 words
2516-556: The Rings for their " Merry England " point of view, equating Tolkien's novel to Winnie-the-Pooh in his essay " Epic Pooh ". Even so, James Cawthorn and Moorcock included The Lord of the Rings in Fantasy: The 100 Best Books (Carroll & Graf, 1988), and their review is not dismissive. Moorcock has also criticized writers for their political agendas. He included Robert A. Heinlein and H. P. Lovecraft among this group in
2590-645: The Rockets , and Firing the Cathedral , which was concerned with 9/11. All four novellas were included in the 2003 edition of The Lives and Times of Jerry Cornelius . Moorcock's most recent Cornelius stories, "Modem Times", appeared in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction: Volume 2 , published in 2008, this was expanded in 2011 as "Modem Times 2.0". Additionally, a version of Cornelius also appeared in Moorcock's 2010 Doctor Who novel The Coming of
2664-467: The Terraphiles . Pegging the President (PS. 2018), The Fracking Factory (on FB, 2018) are two recent novellas and further stories are forthcoming. Moorcock is a fervent supporter of Mervyn Peake 's works. Moorcock is critical of J. R. R. Tolkien 's works. He met both Tolkien and C. S. Lewis in his teens and claims to have liked them personally even though he does not admire them on artistic grounds. Moorcock criticised works such as The Lord of
2738-494: The Vietnam War, and continued to feature another variation of the multiverse theme. The first Jerry Cornelius book, The Final Programme (1968), was made into a feature film in 1973. Its story line is identical to two of the Elric stories: The Dreaming City and The Dead Gods' Book . Since 1998, Moorcock has returned to Cornelius in a series of new stories: The Spencer Inheritance , The Camus Connection , Cheering for
2812-1136: The allegorical fantasy novel The Golden Barge . This remained unpublished until 1980, when it was issued by Savoy Books with an introduction by M. John Harrison . At 19, Moorcock worked on The Sexton Blake Library , a serial pulp fiction featuring Sexton Blake , which The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction referred to as the poor man's Sherlock Holmes . Under Moorcock's leadership, New Worlds became central to "New Wave" science fiction. This movement, not of its own naming, promoted individual vision, literary style and an existential view of technological change, in contrast to generic " hard science fiction ", which extrapolated on technological change itself. Some "New Wave" stories were not recognisable as traditional science fiction, and New Worlds remained controversial for as long as Moorcock edited it. Moorcock claimed that he wanted to publish experimental/literary fiction using techniques and subject matter from generic SF but, initially at least, to marry "popular" and "literary" fiction at what he considered their natural overlap. After 1967, this policy became evident and allied to
2886-502: The background of his multiverse. Moorcock is prone to revising his existing work, with the result that different editions of a given book may contain significant variations. The changes range from simple retitlings (the Elric story The Flame Bringers became The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams in the 1990s Victor Gollancz /White Wolf omnibus editions) to character name changes (such as detective "Minos Aquilinas" becoming first "Minos von Bek" and later "Sam Begg" in three different versions of
2960-613: The band on many occasions, including the Black Sword tour. His contributions were removed from the original release of the Live Chronicles album, recorded on this tour, for legal reasons, but have subsequently appeared on some double-CD versions. He can also be seen performing on the DVD version of Chronicle of the Black Sword . Moorcock also collaborated with former Hawkwind frontman and resident poet, Robert Calvert (who gave
3034-498: The chief influences" on the initial Elric sequence; he dedicated 1972's Elric of Melniboné to Brecht. In the same dedication, he cited Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions and Fletcher Pratt 's The Well of the Unicorn as similarly influential texts. Moorcock has referred to Elric as a type of the "doomed hero", one of the oldest character-types in literature, akin to such hero-villains as Mervyn Peake's Steerpike in
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3108-589: The chilling declamation of "Sonic Attack"), on Calvert's albums Lucky Leif and the Longships and Hype , playing guitar and banjo and singing background vocals with his wife Linda. Moorcock wrote the lyrics to three album tracks by the American band Blue Öyster Cult : " Black Blade ", referring to the sword Stormbringer in the Elric books, " Veteran of the Psychic Wars ", showing us Elric's emotions at
3182-399: The drug community' but made venues and stations wary of booking and playing them. The first album New Worlds Fair was released in 1975. The album included Snowy White , Peter Pavli of The Third Ear Band, regulars Steve Gilmore and Graham Charnock, Moorcock himself on guitars, mandolin and banjo, and a number of Hawkwind regulars in the credits. A second version of the New Worlds album
3256-618: The essentials of the form. Although his heroic fantasies have been his most consistently reprinted books in the United States, he achieved prominence in the UK as a literary author, with the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1977 for The Condition of Muzak , and with Mother London later shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize . Novels and series such as the Cornelius Quartet , Mother London , King of
3330-459: The family to Texas, where they lived for more than ten years. After Anton Anderson's death, his widow took the children to Denmark . The family returned to the United States after the beginning of World War II , settling eventually on a Minnesota farm. While he was an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota , Anderson's first stories were published by editor John W. Campbell in
3404-462: The general title The Michael Moorcock Library, while in France a new adaptation of the Elric and Hawkmoon series has been translated into many languages, including English. Moorcock's best-selling works have been the " Elric of Melniboné " stories. In these, Elric is a deliberate reversal of clichés found in fantasy adventure novels inspired by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien . Central to many of his seminal fantasy novels, including his Elric books,
3478-500: The initials "JC"; these are also the initials of Jesus Christ , the subject of his 1967 Nebula Award -winning novella Behold the Man , which tells the story of Karl Glogauer, a time-traveller who takes on the role of Christ. They are also the initials of various "Eternal Champion" Moorcock characters such as Jerry Cornelius, Jerry Cornell and Jherek Carnelian. In more recent years, Moorcock has taken to using " Warwick Colvin, Jr. " as
3552-590: The landscape of London, particularly the area of Notting Hill Gate and Ladbroke Grove , is an important influence in some of his fiction (such as the Cornelius novels). Moorcock has mentioned The Master Mind of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs , The Apple Cart by George Bernard Shaw and The Constable of St. Nicholas by Edwin Lester Arnold as the first three non-juvenile books that he read before beginning primary school. The first book he bought
3626-425: The line of succession, as Elric has no heirs) interprets this behaviour as weakness and plots Elric's death. Complicating matters is Yyrkoon's sister Cymoril, who is deeply in love with Elric; Yyrkoon covets her, and part of his plan for usurpation is to marry Cymoril himself. In addition to his skill with herbs, Elric is an accomplished sorcerer and summoner. As emperor of Melniboné, Elric is able to call for aid upon
3700-742: The magazine Astounding Science Fiction : "Tomorrow's Children" by Anderson and F. N. Waldrop in March 1947 and a sequel, "Chain of Logic" by Anderson alone, in July. He earned his BA in physics with honors but became a freelance writer after he graduated in 1948. His third story was printed in the December Astounding . Anderson married Karen Kruse in 1953 and relocated with her to the San Francisco Bay area. Their daughter Astrid (later married to science fiction author Greg Bear )
3774-534: The name Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix . The Deep Fix was the title story of an obscure collection of short stories by James Colvin (a pen name of Moorcock) and was the name of the Jerry Cornelius band. Moorcock's story had dealt with releasing the unconscious, and although it referenced William Burroughs, it was not specifically about illicit drugs. This allegedly lost the band considerable airplay and gave Moorcock what he called 'a great reputation in
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#17327805039513848-494: The options, usually when they seemed to drift too far off course. In February 2019, BBC Studios announced they had secured the rights to the Runestaff series of fantasy novels, which feature Hawkmoon as their hero. Another of Moorcock's creations is Jerry Cornelius , a hip urban adventurer of ambiguous gender ; the same characters featured in each of several Cornelius books. These books were satirical of modern times, including
3922-607: The origins of fantasy in myth and medieval cycles (see "Wizardry and Wild Romance – Moorcock" and "Death Is No Obstacle – Colin Greenland" for more commentary). This also provides an implicit link with the episodic origins of literature in newspaper/magazine serials from Trollope and Dickens onwards. None of this should be surprising given Moorcock's background in magazine publishing. Since the 1980s, Moorcock has written longer, more literary "mainstream" novels, such as Mother London and Byzantium Endures , but he continued to revisit characters from his earlier works, such as Elric. With
3996-773: The poet Bill Butler, who died of a drug overdose. Moorcock has performed live with BÖC (in 1987 at the Atlanta, GA Dragon Con Convention). Moorcock contributed vocals and harmonica to the Spirits Burning albums An Alien Heat , The Hollow Lands , and The End Of All Songs - Part 1 . Most of the lyrics were taken from or based on text in novels from Moorcock's The Dancers At The End Of Time trilogy. The albums were produced by Spirits Burning leader Don Falcone , and included contributions from Albert Bouchard and other members of Blue Öyster Cult , as well as former members of Hawkwind. Moorcock plays harmonica on three songs on
4070-456: The process of making the intended versions of those songs based on the group's TEAC recordings of the 80s. They are influenced heavily by modern classical music which they look to for inspiration. Moorcock's considerable range is demanded. Moorcock and Pavli have long been advocates for Mahler, Schoenberg, Ives and other 20th century composers. Working with Martin Stone , Moorcock began recording
4144-412: The publication of the third and last book in his Elric Moonbeam Roads sequence, he announced that he was "retiring" from writing heroic fantasy fiction, though he continued to write Elric's adventures as graphic novels with his long-time collaborators Walter Simonson and the late James Cawthorn (1929–2008) and in 2021 announced that he had written a 'straight' Elric novel, within the first canon, for
4218-438: The reason for sharing his character: I came out of popular fiction and Jerry was always meant to be a sort of crystal ball for others to see their own visions in – the stories were designed to work like that – a diving board, to use another analogy, from which to jump into the river and be carried along by it. [...] All of these have tended to use Jerry the way I intended to use him – as a way of seeing modern life and sometimes as
4292-519: The rest of the character, his ambiguities in particular, I based him on myself at the age I was when I created Elric, which was 20". The influence of Zenith on Elric is often cited in discussions of Zenith. Elric has appeared in many stories since 1962, which have been republished in several collections. Two anthologies of works by other authors set in the Moorcock multiverse have been published: The Elric saga has also been adapted for comics and graphic novels several times: A video game based on Elric
4366-403: The same name , and he worked with the band on their album Warrior on the Edge of Time , for which he earned a gold disc. Moorcock also wrote the lyrics to " Sonic Attack ", a Sci-Fi satire of the public information broadcast, that was part of Hawkwind's Space Ritual set. Hawkwind's album The Chronicle of the Black Sword was largely based on the Elric novels. Moorcock appeared on stage with
4440-420: The short story "The Pleasure Garden of Felipe Sagittarius"), major textual alterations (for example, the addition of several new chapters to The Steel Tsar in the omnibus editions), and even complete restructurings (as with the 1966 novella Behold the Man being expanded to novel-length and into a novel rather than an SF story recreated from the original version that appeared in New Worlds for republication as
4514-468: The souls of intelligent beings. In the end, the blade takes everyone close to Elric and eventually Elric's own soul as well. Most of Moorcock's stories about Elric feature this relationship with Stormbringer, and how it—despite Elric's best intentions—brings doom to everything he holds dear. Melniboné ( / ˌ m ɛ l ˈ n ɪ b oʊ n eɪ / mel- NIB -o-nay ), also known as the Dragon Isle ,
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#17327805039514588-425: The tapering, beautiful head stare two slanting eyes, crimson and moody, and from the loose sleeves of his yellow gown emerge two slender hands, also the colour of bone. Elric is the last emperor of the stagnating island civilization of Melniboné. Physically weak, the anemic Elric must use drugs (special herbs) to maintain his health and vitality. From childhood, he read freely in the immense royal library and learned of
4662-558: The traditional patron of the Melniboné emperors, Arioch, a Lord of Chaos and Duke of Hell. From the first story, Elric uses ancient pacts and agreements with not only Arioch, but various other beings—some gods, some demons—to help him accomplish his tasks. Elric's discovery of the sword Stormbringer serves as both his greatest asset and disadvantage. The sword confers upon Elric strength, health, and fighting prowess, allowing him to do away with his dependence on drugs, but it must be fed by
4736-730: The world outside the Dreaming Isle. Perhaps due to this in-depth study, unlike other members of his race, Elric has a conscience. He witnesses the decadence of his culture, which once ruled the known world, and worries about the rise of the Young Kingdoms populated by humans (Melnibonéans consider themselves separate from humanity), along with the threat they pose to his empire. Because of Elric's introspective self-loathing and hatred of Melnibonéan traditions, his subjects find him odd and unfathomable. However, his cousin Yyrkoon (next in
4810-505: The year in Texas, the other half in Paris , France. Moorcock's works feature political content. In one interview, he states, "I am an anarchist and a pragmatist . My moral/philosophical position is that of an anarchist." In describing how his writing relates to his political philosophy, Moorcock says, "My books frequently deal with aristocratic heroes, gods and so forth. All of them end on
4884-507: Was 15 volumes, while the British edition was 14 volumes, but due to various rights issues, the U.S. edition contained two volumes that were not included in the British edition, and the British edition likewise contained one volume that was not included in the U.S. edition) containing several books per volume, by Victor Gollancz in the UK and by White Wolf Publishing in the US. Several attempts to make an Elric film were made. Moorcock refused to resign
4958-775: Was a founding member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) in 1966 and of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), also during the mid-1960s. The latter was a group of Heroic fantasy authors organized by Lin Carter , originally eight in number, with entry by credentials as a fantasy writer alone. Anderson was the sixth President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America , taking office in 1972. Robert A. Heinlein dedicated his 1985 novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls to Anderson and eight of
5032-511: Was a secondhand copy of The Pilgrim's Progress . Moorcock is the former husband of the writer Hilary Bailey , with whom he had three children: Sophie (b. 1963), Katherine (b. 1964), and Max (b. 1972). Moorcock is also the former husband of Jill Riches, who later married Robert Calvert . She illustrated some of Moorcock's books, including covers, among them the dustjacket for the first edition of Gloriana ( Allison and Busby , 1978). In 1983, Linda Steele became Moorcock's third wife. He
5106-420: Was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until his death in 2001. Anderson also wrote historical novels. He won the Hugo Award seven times and the Nebula Award three times, and was nominated many more times for awards. Poul Anderson was born on November 25, 1926, in Bristol, Pennsylvania to Danish parents. Soon after his birth, his father, Anton Anderson, relocated
5180-399: Was an early member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of eight heroic fantasy authors founded in the 1960s and led by Lin Carter , selected by fantasy credentials alone. Moorcock is the subject of four book-length works, a monograph and an interview, by Colin Greenland . In 1983, Greenland published The Entropy Exhibition: Michael Moorcock and
5254-427: Was born in 1954 . They made their home in Orinda, California . Over the years Poul gave many readings at The Other Change of Hobbit bookstore in Berkeley ; his widow later donated his typewriter and desk to the store. In 1954, he published the fantasy novel The Broken Sword , one of his most known works. In 1965, Algis Budrys said that Anderson "has for some time been science fiction's best storyteller". He
5328-546: Was in development by Haiku Studios and to be published by Psygnosis for the PlayStation during the late 1990s. There have also been several references in popular culture to Elric's sword Stormbringer . Writing for NPR , Jason Sheehan calls Elric "far and away the coolest, grimmest, moodiest, most elegant, degenerate, drug-addicted, cursed, twisted and emotionally weird mass murderer of them all". Michael Moorcock Michael John Moorcock (born 18 December 1939)
5402-724: Was issued in 2004 under the album name Roller Coaster Holiday . A non-album rock single, including Lemmy on bass and Moorcock playing his own Rickenbacker 330/12, "Starcruiser" coupled with "Dodgem Dude", was belatedly issued in 1980 on Flicknife . Although announced to appear at Dingwalls, the performance was cancelled when schedules clashed. The Deep Fix gave a rare live performance at the Roundhouse , London on 18 June 1978 at Nik Turner 's Bohemian Love-In , headlined by Turner's band Sphynx and also featuring Tanz Der Youth with Brian James (ex- The Damned ), Lightning Raiders , Steve Took's Horns , Roger Ruskin and others. In 1982, as
5476-474: Was published in French by Denoel. Among other works by Moorcock are The Dancers at the End of Time , comedies set on Earth millions of years in the future, Gloriana, or The Unfulfill'd Queen , which he describes as an argument with Spenser 's The Faerie Queen , set in an alternative Earth history and the "Second Ether" sequence beginning with "BLOOD", mixing absurdism, reminiscence and family memoir against
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